Maualuga has been chatting up the coaching staff about a role at fullback—the Dolphins don’t have one—and they finally granted his wish by sending him in as the lead blocker on a play in Sunday’s 31-28 win over the Jets. He got in as the fullback on a three-yard run by Jay Ajayi in the second quarter.

It was his first time appearing on offense in his nine-year career, and it’d been a long-time dream.

He began this campaign about three weeks ago, sidling up next to coach Adam Gase and mentioning casually, “You know I can play fullback.”

Gase replied dryly, “Great.”

But Maualuga persisted. He also started badgering running backs coach Danny Barrett.

“I was like, ‘Well, I know he’ll hit somebody,’” Gase said. “I think he was working a lot of areas in the building trying to get in there. But he did a good job. That’s a big man. He’ll come and hit you.”

Maualuga initially tried to downplay how much lobbying he did for a spot in the offense before being informed that Gase shared the real story an hour earlier. Then he confessed that he bypassed Clyde Christensen altogether.

“No point in going to the offensive coordinator,” he said. “You’ve got to go to the head man. You know what I mean?”

Maualuga promised Gase, “I’ll give you one yard. If we need a yard, I’ll get that for you… If I don’t get you that yard, I’m going to run in that locker room and take my shirt and pads off.”

He did not ask for the ball, though that could be coming next. Maualuga proudly showed off footage of him running through a defense while in high school and he occasionally runs routes at tight end on the scout team in practice.

Maualuga got a few reps at fullback last week, none of which came during the parts of practice that are open to the media. He was coy about whether he took multiple snaps of the same play or ran several different plays. He also suggested played coy when asked if there’s a HeavyCat package in the offense.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “There’s one where I go out for a pass or whatever. Nah, I don’t know. I wish.”

Gase turned quiet when pressed to divulge Maualuga’s other skills and how else the 6-foot-2, 258-pound linebacker might be used on offense, but Maualuga didn’t hold back.

“I can do whatever the team asks me to,” he said.

Can he throw? “I can do whatever,” he said. But he drew the line at kicking. “Ah, maybe not,” he admitted. “I’m a toe kicker.”

For now, he’ll focus mainly on fullback—especially given the concern that other linebackers might get jealous and start asking for snaps, too. When asked whether he was worried that Kiko Alonso (6-3, 233), who was crowding in with the media to hear about his teammates exploits, Maualuga expressed full confidence that he’d handle him just fine in a fullback-off.

“He’s got to beat me for it,” he said. “We’re going to have a one-on-one goal-line battle of me and him. If he beats me, he can have it. I figure I’ve got the weight, the arm-strength.”